


I'll Be Your Sky

by reliquiaen



Category: Neon Genesis Evangelion
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-02
Updated: 2016-02-02
Packaged: 2018-05-17 19:18:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,962
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5882473
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/reliquiaen/pseuds/reliquiaen
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Asuka makes a shit burgler, but Rei doesn't mind.</p>
            </blockquote>





	I'll Be Your Sky

**Author's Note:**

> I lost motivation and the flow went sideways. But hey, Xairathan didn't have to pay for this one.

Silence filled the halls, the rooms; a comforting quiet that only came about after the crowds had dispersed for the day. It’s why Rei stayed late, honestly. Working at the planetarium had started as a convenience, an amusement. Studying astronomy, astrophysics, aeronautical engineering; the investigations of space had long been her passion – the only thing she derived any sense of direction from – it had seemed fitting in a strange way to work at the planetarium. There was something reassuring in looking at the stars and knowing they are larger, older, they have _seen_ more than she could ever hope to. Some people looked up and felt small.

Rei saw the heavens open at night and felt infinite.

So after all the other workers at the planetarium had gone home, Rei would linger. No one liked to be the one to close up of an evening and they were all more than happy to let her do it. Only she’d finish her homework in the screening room, constellations spinning across the walls as she did her required readings, made notes for assessment, wrote up essays. And when she was done, usually not long before midnight, she’d head up to the roof; the one place planetarium visitors weren’t allowed.

On the roof of the building was a little attic, she suspected it had initially been constructed as a store room when the one inside was turned into the staff toilet. Just a little box added to the roof, an addendum. On the inside was a telescope, large, brass and expensive, it had been bought with the combined money of some of her co-workers a few Christmases ago. Not many of them bothered to use it, but when asked why they’d seen the need to purchase it with no intention of doing any stargazing, they’d simply reply, ‘it’s the planetarium, it should have a big telescope’. Or something to that effect anyway.

Some nights, Rei liked to stare through the scope at the stars, picking out the ones she knew, mapping constellations just for fun. Other nights – nights such as this one – she’d bring up a blanket from the new store room and lie on the concrete with nothing but the vast inky expanse for a ceiling. Always quiet and reserved, Rei wasn’t prone to feeling anything with much intensity, not anger or fondness, not fear or sorrow. But there was a sensation in watching the stars pinwheel above her, this warmth in her chest, an odd expansion in the spaces between her ribs; it made her feel light, at ease. A feeling she’d never experienced before under any other circumstances.

It was pleasant. Silence and stars. She blinked up at them, eyes following the natural arcs they made across the sky, like still shots of galactic fireworks.

The alarm on her phone beeped at ten minutes to midnight and she sighed, heaving herself upright and rolling the blanket. Then it was back inside, down to the store room to replace the blanket, grab her things and close up for the evening. Only she was interrupted.

Her hands froze in the act of squeezing the blanket back into its space on the shelf, head tilted to one side as she listened. Another creak echoed down the corridor; a sound that definitely should not be there. She finished squishing the blanket into place and turned, hand closing around a broom on her way out the door. Then she paused only long enough to lock the staff room before stepping cautiously down the hall in search of the noise.

Another soft bang caught her attention and she turned towards the source. A window on one side of the building, near the visitors’ toilets, was propped open with what looked to be a… textbook? Rei took a wary step closer to inspect it and yes, a textbook. It was hard to make out the title in the dim light, but it looked like something on robotics and engineering. How utterly bizarre.

She backed up, heading back towards the front of the building. A light flashed unexpectedly against one wall, followed by some hushed sounds that might have been speaking. Either way, the light had come from inside the gift shop. Rei sidled up to the doorframe and peeked inside.

Racks and stands of novelty space things filled most of the room. From small plastic telescopes to books full of photos, kaleidoscopes and bouncy balls patterned like planets, rockets and satellites to hang from ceilings and those tiny glow-in-the-dark stars that parents stick above a child’s bed. All silly things, to Rei’s mind, but she could hardly deny the novelty factor.

Between two of the stands, the light flashed again. And then she saw the two people creeping down the aisles. They didn’t look overly threatening, both slight people wearing hoodies and jeans. One had a beanie pulled down around her ears, hair all tucked up beneath it, the other merely had her hood tugged forward across her face. And they were both girls, Rei could tell by the cut of their pants and the way their coats hung from their shoulders.

“Mari, would you put that down,” snapped the one with the hood. She kept her voice pitched low but it was definitely a snap.

The girl with the beanie – Mari, apparently – had a model spacecraft in one hand, waving it around like it was flying. “You are no fun at all, Shikinami,” she complained, still holding the toy. “Loosen up a little.”

“This was a bad idea,” the other girl grumbled.

“Probably.”

“Why did you drag me along again?” The girl turned away, inspecting a little packet labelled with glittery letters proclaiming it to be _stardust_.

Mari propped her chin on the girl’s shoulder. “Because you’re efficient, and when breaking into a building, it’s best to be just that.”

The girl growled, spinning. “Well bloody grab something so we can get out of here. The longer we stay, the more likely we are to get caught.”

“You really are a good two shoes, huh, princess,” Mari laughed. But she leaned past her to grab a handful of the stardust packets. “Fine. Let’s go.”

Rei stepped away from the door, ducking into the shadows of the welcome desk. The two girls rounded the corner and headed back to the window they’d obviously come in through. She followed them slowly, not entirely sure why, there was no way she’d engage them. Perhaps it was simply curiosity.

“Next time,” the princess muttered, clearly angry, “that idiot Shinji dares you to break into some locked building late at night, _don’t_ bring me with.”

“Aw,” Mari sang, slipping through the window. “But then who would keep me company?”

“If Shinji wants to burgle someone, he can come with you.” The princess slithered through the window, hood falling away as she twisted. Then she turned to grab her book and as she did, she looked up and caught sight of Rei, standing there in the hall watching her like a moron.

Panic flashed across the girl’s face briefly, but Rei just kept staring at her. The girl finally wrested her book free and guided the window closed. She tucked it up against her chest, both arms wrapped tightly around it. A slight frown creased her brow and she opened her mouth, though even if she said something Rei wouldn’t be able to hear it. Obviously she knew that because her mouth closed again. Then with a shake of her head, she was gone.

Rei continued to stand in the hall staring after her for a few minutes. She was entirely unsure why, but it… _felt_ … like something. She blinked, returning to the present and went about closing up as normal. On her way out the door she paused and backtracked to the gift shop. After counting up the items missing, she quietly added the appropriate money to the till.

Then she went home.

 

* * *

 

Tuesdays were always a slow start; her first class wasn’t until ten in the morning. That was fine with Rei; really, it meant that she had a few hours in the morning to do some extra study. Though she was always early for the lecture anyway, she didn’t exactly have any reasons to be distracted or late. No friends or family to waylay her; one of the pros to being an orphan she supposed. Though she was aware that not everyone thought of that as a positive thing.

She was sitting in her usual spot off to one side by a window, about half way back in the lecture hall when the door slammed open. Normally she wouldn’t find herself glancing over to see what the commotion was, but then again normally the door didn’t slam and no one was as early as her. Ever.

A girl stood in the doorway, bright red glasses framing her blue eyes. She scanned the room, catching only for a second on Rei before continuing the sweep. Then she leaned back outside the door, one hand supporting her weight against the wall. “The dork isn’t here yet,” she called down the corridor.

“Typical,” came the muffled reply. Then another girl was joining her. “That’s just like him.”

The girl with the glasses swept brown hair out of her face, adjusting a clip. She bumped her hip into the other girl and Rei’s attention shifted, surprise rippling through her. Recognition had taken a moment, but it had been dark the first time she’d seen the girl’s face. And really, it was the considerable amount of red hair that gave her away. Rei looked away quickly, going back to staring out the window as she usually did.

“I’m going to the bathroom,” the first girl, Mari, announced. “Mind my books, princess.” The door slammed behind her leaving the room in silence.

Rei determinedly continued to pretend she was alone, though her heart felt a little unusual, as if it were being constricted. The chair beside her scraped loudly as it was pulled out and the red head sank into the seat. For a moment, the quiet stretched.

Then, “You’re the girl from the planetarium.”

Reluctantly, Rei turned to look at her. This girl with her pretty face and brilliantly blue eyes and that little frown once more creasing her brow, regarding her with such intensity, no one looked at Rei with anything that might be described as intense. Only apathy. Rei’s heart clenched uncomfortably.

She swallowed, unable to come up with something to say to that. She nodded.

The girl _tch_ ’d. “You could’ve had us arrested you know. Not a very good security guard.”

“I’m not a guard,” Rei managed. “I just work there.”

The girl’s mouth twisted up into a strange sort of wry smile. “So late? Did you forget to go home or something?”

Rei shrugged. “I like the quiet.”

Her shoulders slumped, face relaxing. Perhaps she was at a loss for words. Rei couldn’t look away from her; it was odd, the way this girl’s eyes looked just like stars.

“Whatever,” she finally got out, though the bite to her tone was superficial at best. And her next words were almost soft. “Thank you.”

“For what?”

“Not calling security, I guess.” She looked away, down at her books.

Rei continued to study her profile. “I paid for the things you took,” she said quietly. Shock flitted across the girl’s face.

When she turned back to Rei, bangs falling across her eyes, her expression seemed… uncertain. “Let me pay you back,” she said, not a question, more a statement of fact. Though she perhaps she wasn’t sure why she was asking. Rei had never been good at reading people.

“It’s okay.”

“No, listen.” She shifted in her seat so her whole body was facing Rei and a fire seemed to kindle in her stomach. No one ever directed that much attention her way. “I’m going to buy you lunch, alright? No arguments.”

Rei blinked, that fire flickering higher. So she nodded.

The girl opened her mouth again, but she didn’t get any words out. “Asuka! Shinji’s here.” Accompanying those words were two people banging into the room. One of them was the girl from earlier, Mari, and the other a slender boy with short dark hair and quiet features. “I don’t think he believes us.”

He rolled his eyes, but a smile quirked at the corners of his mouth. “The planetarium?” he drawled. “Really?”

Mari shoved him in the shoulder. “It’s close to the princess’s how okay, moron?”

Rei’s eyes drifted between the three of them, but settled once more on the red head as if drawn by gravity. She waved her friends off, still facing Rei.

“Asuka,” she muttered. “Asuka Shikinami.”

She decided she was probably supposed to introduce herself in response to that. “Rei Ayanami.”

Asuka smiled; a gentle thing that crinkled her eyes. “And those two idiots are my friends, Mari and Shinji. Just so you know, breaking in last night was totally Shinji’s idea.”

“He wasn’t there,” Rei pointed out.

Asuka twisted at the waist to glare at him. “Because he’s a chicken shit, that’s why.”

Shinji held his hands out, following Mari as she collapsed into the chair beside Asuka. “Hey, it was a dare, yeah? I didn’t think I needed to monitor you.”

“Why?” Rei asked. They all turned to her, clearly expectant. “Why do it?”

Mari stared at her, incredulous. “Because in spite of her bluster, Asuka likes to play by the rules,” she explained slowly. “Shinji didn’t think she’d be able to break a law.”

“Excuse you,” Asuka interrupted. “You’re the one who’d never broken a law.”

“Yeah, but I’m less of a try-hard than you, princess,” she laughed. “We didn’t get caught, so you worried for nothing.”

Asuka’s eyes flicked back to Rei then, something flashing in her eyes. “No,” she whispered. “We didn’t.”

Rei wasn’t sure she understood, but she nodded anyway.

 

* * *

 

“You don’t talk much,” Asuka observed, grabbing her elbow to lead her in a different direction.

She shrugged. “Not much to say.”

Asuka beamed. “Fair enough. So what do you eat? There’s a great little Italian place down here. Or there’s an Indian joint a few blocks that way.”

Rei eyed her carefully. “I don’t eat meat.”

Asuka didn’t so much as bat an eyelash. She just hummed, spinning around as she thought. “Thai then.” Without preamble, she hooked her arm through Rei’s and started down the street. “So what do you study?”

“Astronomy.”

“Cool. I’m aerospace engineering,” Asuka told her. “Particularly astronautics is what I’m into, but the whole field is really interesting. I wanted to be a pilot but…” She lifted her free hand to pointedly gesture at her eyes. “I have astigmatism in my left eye, so I was automatically disqualified. Damn stupid biology.”

“You don’t need glasses?” Rei wondered.

“Not yet, maybe when I’m thirty.” She kicked a pebble with the toe of her shoe, then looked over at Rei. “And what about the stars, huh? Why space?”

“It’s comforting,” she replied with a half-shrug.

“Never grew out of the space stage of childhood,” Asuka laughed. She pulled open the door to the little Thai shop, but even though Rei would’ve been more than happy to sit on a stool at the bench, once they’d received their orders, Asuka dragged her back outside. Down the street to the park where she flopped onto the grass beneath a tree.

Rei sank slowly down beside her, finding this whole situation highly unusual.

Asuka smiled, bumping into Rei’s shoulder. “So hey. Why were you at the planetarium so late anyway?” She cracked open the lid of her lunch, not looking away as she stuck her fork in.

When she didn’t get a reply she looked up, her face flushed just slightly when she realised Rei had been watching her, food sitting mostly forgotten in her lap. “I’m not sure,” Rei murmured. “I don’t know if I could explain it.”

Hesitantly, Asuka bobbed her head. Rei didn’t really think she understood the sentiment, but at least she showed no sign of pressing the matter. The realisation caused a sloshing sensation in Rei’s chest.

“Maybe,” she began softly, finally looking down at her lunch. “I could show you instead.”

She could feel the weight of Asuka’s gaze, that intensity that made her _feel_. It smothered her, deafening around her ears, a crushing press in on her ribs that made her heart beat harder than normal, made it hard to breathe; like drowning.

“I’d like that.”

 

* * *

 

Asuka appeared that night just before closing time, wearing a tiny smile and a deep maroon jacket with a scarf tossed around her collar. The smile changed when she saw Rei step out of the lighting booth where the controls for the space dome were kept. And Rei, bizarrely, felt a smile of her own tilt across her face.

“Hi,” Asuka said lightly as she wandered over. “Busy?”

Rei glanced back into the booth, humming quietly. “Not for much longer.” She checked her watch. “This session finishes in five minutes and then we close.”

“Not what I meant,” she muttered drolly.

“Rei?” They both turned to see who was speaking. Sakura blinked at Asuka but then turned to Rei. “How long have they got?”

“Just a few more minutes.”

“Alright. Well if you’d like to do the tally for the gift shop I’ll take over here.”

“Thank you,” she sighed. It was nice that Sakura knew how little she liked the last shift for the dome. Too many people being difficult. Asuka trailed her on the way down the hall, a talkative shadow.

Asuka slid up onto the counter, kicking her heels against the front board while Rei counted out the money to make sure they hadn’t fallen short. Her twenty dollar note to compensate for the items Asuka and Mari had taken the previous night was still there. She shuffled the bills together and locked them in the safe under the counter where it would remain until Friday.

“I’m sorry,” Asuka grumbled, one heel hitting the counter harder then. “For yesterday.”

“It’s fine,” Rei assured her.

“No it’s not. Shinji’s an ass, but he’s not wrong. I _don’t_ like breaking rules. I wouldn’t have done this if it hadn’t been for him.”

Rei glanced up at her. “The items are paid for. It’s fine.” She rounded the counter to stand at Asuka’s knees, which thankfully stopped bouncing then. “It’s done.”

Asuka sighed, her whole face scrunching up, possibly angry with herself. “Not very nice though,” she grouched. Rei thought she muttered something else under her breath then, but Sakura swung through the doorframe.

“Hey. Everyone’s out, I’m going home. You got the lock up?”

“Yes.”

“Awesome.” Her eyes glittered as she watched them, something pointed in her expression when she looked at Asuka. But she didn’t say anything else, just left, calling a final farewell over her shoulder.

Asuka sucked in a deep breath and slid off the counter, landing well and truly within Rei’s personal space bubble. However for a long second she was trapped; caught in the gravity of Asuka’s eyes. Warmth prickled along the back of her neck, heart trying to squeeze between her ribs and she was struck by the urge to do something stupid. Then she stepped back and Asuka’s tiny smile wobbled just slightly.

She recovered quickly, slipping past Rei dangerously close. “Come on then. You said you were going to show me something.” With those words the heat in Rei’s neck oozed down her spine.

So she followed, leading Asuka first to the store room where she retrieved her blanket and then up the stairs at the back to the roof. Asuka’s expression was wary when she stepped onto the concrete.

“Is this the part where you kill me?” she deadpanned.

“I’m not prepared for that,” Rei replied equally toneless.

Her words were fact, but they earned a confused sort of grin from Asuka. “Oh good. Glad to hear it.”

Rei snapped the blanket out and let it settle on the ground, then she sat, motioning for Asuka to do the same. She did, albeit hesitantly. Though when Rei lay down flat on her back, fingers laced across her stomach, Asuka followed a lot less suspiciously. She kept staring at Rei though, which – while admittedly quite pleasant – was not the point.

So Rei rolled her head to stare back and make note of this, only her breath got lodged in her throat and the words jammed up behind it. All she could do was watch the way the stars twinkling so far above them glittered in the blue of Asuka’s eyes, like tiny little galaxies.

“You’re supposed to look at the sky,” she rasped eventually.

Asuka hummed acknowledgement but didn’t look away. It seemed wrong that she was so quiet. Even though Rei wasn’t much for socialising, it had always seemed a matter of course to notice Asuka, she was so… _big_ , such a vibrant personality. But this was different. There was heat, but none of Asuka’s usual irritability; noise, but it was all Rei’s heart beat in her ears; tension, but not from a pending argument, it was all tightness in her stomach.

And the silence seemed far too loud.

Asuka bit her lip. “Hey, Rei?”

“Yes?”

The silence crashed back down around them, Asuka remained quiet. She finally looked up at the sky. But Rei could still see the stars twinkling on her face. The entire universe reflected in the blue.

After another beat of that oppressive silence, Rei murmured, “Asuka?”

She rolled her head back around. “Yeah?”

Rei hesitated, wanting to be utterly sure of what she was about to say. She drew in a breath. “I would like to kiss you.”

Asuka only nodded, looking a little lost for words.

Rei waited a long moment, but nothing else happened so she leaned across the space slowly – painfully slowly – making sure Asuka had every chance to back away. She didn’t. And their lips met. Gently at first, careful and questioning. But then Asuka made a soft little sound, a sigh perhaps, and her hands came up to wind into the collar of Rei’s coat and pull her closer.

Stars in the sky, stars in Asuka’s eyes, stars blinding behind her eyelids. Thinking was suddenly very hard. Yet _feeling_ was uncommonly easy.

When she leaned away, Asuka was smiling; something soft and precious. She ran a thumb across Rei’s cheek and pressed a kiss to her nose. Rei couldn’t remember how to form words, didn’t know what to do.

Asuka did. “I’m really glad you didn’t get me arrested last night.”

Rei blinked. “A joke?”

“Yes,” she laughed. “Though I am glad I didn’t get arrested. Tonight is going much better.”

“Really?”

“You really are _such_ a nerd,” Asuka huffed. “Yes of course.”

“Okay.”

Asuka slapped her shoulder. “That’s it? Okay?”

Rei just stared at her, incredulous. “Honestly, I didn’t know you even realised I existed before this morning. This was unexpected.”

Asuka _harrumphed_ , flopping onto her back, but still staring at Rei and not the sky. “You are kind of oblivious though. For a nerdrocket.”

“Nerdrocket?”

“A nerd who’s obsessed with space,” Asuka told her wryly as if it should’ve been obvious. She shifted then, settling down closer to Rei. “Besides, you get better grades than I do. How could I _not_ have noticed you?”

“I frustrated you?” The notion amused her; Rei could feel a smile tugging at her lips.

“In more ways than one.” They lapsed into quiet again. This time it didn’t feel like drowning. “We should do this again.”

“Which part?”

Asuka hummed. “All of it.”

And for the first time in her life, she found contentment somewhere other than the heavens.

 


End file.
